Deadly Addiction: Can't arrest our way out of this'

Opioid Developments

The latest developments in Michigan’s opioid epidemic

• July 13 – 12 people in Michigan were indicted for opioid prescription fraud in a nationwide effort by the U.S. Justice Department in 21 states and Puerto Rico.

• July 13 – The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services launched a media campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse, the treatment options available, and to educate about proper storage and disposal of prescription drugs.

A 30-year-old Lake Orion woman died after she was found unresponsive by emergency responders. Her boyfriend told deputies some of his medications were missing and she may have overdosed on them.

A 24-year-old Rochester Hills man died of an overdose, despite receiving two doses of Narcan, a drug designed to reverse the effects of opioids.

And, little more than a week ago, a gunman robbed a Walgreens in Madison Heights of opiate painkillers.

That’s just July, so far.

Numbers released by the state Department of Health & Human Services this month indicate deaths from using opioids continue to increase at an alarming rate from what some have called an opioid epidemic.

Advertisement

Politicians, law enforcement, and health agencies are taking note. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office keeps supplies of Narcan in all its substations around the county.

“I see either a save or an overdose almost every day,” said Mike Bouchard, the Oakland County sheriff. “How much worse it would be if we didn’t? We probably are running about 50 saves a year. You add that in, and things look a lot worse.”

Prescription opioids include painkillers such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, methadone and Vicodin. Opioids also include illegal heroin found on the streets, but the state health department separates statistics for overdoses from prescription drugs and illegal drugs.

Alarming Numbers

Statewide, overdose deaths from prescription opioids climbed to 1,365 in 2016, up from 884 the year before, a 54 percent increase in one year. For comparison, in 1999, 62 people died from opioid overdoses. That’s a shocking increase of over 2,100 percent in 17 years or roughly a 123 percent increase each year if the death rate was constant.

Most of the overdose deaths happen in southeast Michigan because that’s where most of the state’s population lives. But the tally of prescription deaths in just two years, for 2015 to 2016, is a sobering double-digit increase in two of the three Metro Detroit counties.

As extreme are the numbers above are, the death toll may not be entirely accurate and understated.

That’s because the state compiles causes of death from county medical examiners. To understand the problem, consider a study by the Oakland County health department into causes of deaths.

For example, a medical examiner may list the cause of death as a heart attack, but this may not account for a history of opioid use as a contributing factor. So that information is not always noted.

“In our research, we are closer to about 165 opioid related deaths in 2016,” said Trisha Zizumbo, a health education supervisor for Oakland County. If true, that’s 132 more than officially recognized.

The county also looked at prescriptions logged with the Michigan Automated Prescription System required of pharmacists. The good news is data shows fewer opioid prescriptions are being dispensed in Oakland County.

There were 841,125 prescriptions filled in 2014, 775,947 in 2015, and 743,969 in 2016, an 11.5 percent reduction over the three-year period. But that still works out to roughly 51 pills per county resident in 2014, and 48 pills per county resident in 2015.

Tackling Opioids

The Oakland County Health Division has established an opioid partnership it calls MEDS, which stands for Monitor, Educate, Dispose and Secure, aimed at monitoring prescriptions, educating about opioids, teaching how to dispose of them properly, and how to secure them in your home.

“There’s so many layers to what the solution is,” said Bouchard, the county sheriff. “We can’t arrest our way out of this.

“There has to be education. It has to be diversion and treatment for those who get snared by addiction, and it certainly means punishment and legal action for those who sell this stuff,” Bouchard said.